5 Exciting Secret Santa Games to Make This Christmas More Fun

This Christmas many families are looking for ways to make Christmas day more exciting. The normal tradition is to open the presents placed beneath the Christmas tree and enjoy them for the rest of the day. However it soon becomes tiresome after the initial excitement of opening presents has ended. Here are some great ideas for spicing up the present opening with Secret Santa Games.

The first game is Dirty Santa. Like Secret Santa it involves participants buying gifts for each other anonymously. However, there are no assigned recipients. Everyone just buys a gift that meets the agreed upon budget. It is up to the discretion of each person to pick what gift they think the other players would like. On Christmas Day have each family member pick a gift. They then have the option of keeping it or stealing another player's gift. This along with not knowing what gift you get will add an air of excitement to your gift exchanges.

Another game is holiday poker. The rules are simple. Everyone that wants to participate buys small presents to act as the stake. You then play a game of poker by the normal rules. It can be Texas Hold'em or any of the other varieties of poker. The person that wins gets the majority of the presents that are bet upon in the game.

A fun game you can do is Holiday fake out. This is a great game because you have everyone buy normal Christmas presents as well as gag gifts. The goal is to pick a present that is not a gag gift and is actually a good present. Since the present is wrapped, everyone is going to have to use their deductive skills to avoid getting the gag gift. For gag gifts you can just use something that you would normally find in any joke shop such fake poo, a springing snake, or something banally ordinary such as batteries or a normal pair tube socks. This will make the gift exchange funnier and more enjoyable.

You can also have simple contest to help decide who gets to open gifts first. A great example is musical chairs. Have a holiday version of the game using Christmas Carols and holiday tunes. The person who last to the end managing to get the last seat will be considered the winner and have first pick of the presents. This will be sure to not only amuse your family but make opening presents a more democratic affair.

Dirty Dice is another great suggestion for a Santa game. The rules are pretty simple. In the games there two phases of play in the first one everyone passes around a pair of dice. Like in other gift giving games, everyone will have chosen a gift for the game and put it in a pile for the game. Anyone who rolls doubles can pick a present from the pile. After a couple of turns have happened then the second phase begins. A timer is set for 15 minutes and everyone starts rolling again. There is no limit to the number of turns except for the times limit. If someone rolls doubles this time they can steal a present but it can be stolen back; however, if someone rolls double sixes they can steal any gift without reprisals. The point is to grab as many gifts as possible.

Something special you can do for children is to have them receive a letter from Santa. Each letter can be personalized with their accomplishments and customized for special Christmas occasions such as a first Christmas.